Bollito Misto Recipes

BOLLITO MISTO (ITALIAN BOILED MEATS WITH RED AND GREEN SAUCES)

Steps:

• Prepare the meats: Season chuck roast and beef shank generously with salt and pepper and let sit for 1 hour at room temperature or refrigerate overnight, if time permits. Transfer meats to a 12-quart pot. Use the whole cloves to stick the bay leaves onto the whole onions, and add to the pot along with peppercorns, celery stalks and large carrots.
• Cover with 4 quarts water (or a little more to cover) and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover with lid ajar and cook at a bare simmer for 2 to 3 hours, until meats are fork tender.
• Make the salsa verde: Purée parsley, basil and capers in food processor with about 1 cup olive oil to make a rough, loose paste. Transfer to a bowl, and stir in red-pepper flakes, salt and pepper, scallions, horseradish and vinegar. Thin with more oil to desired consistency. You should have 1 1/2 cups. (Both sauces can be made well ahead of time. The salsa verde will keep for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator and is great on grilled fish, chicken or vegetables.)
• Make the salsa rossa: Soak bread cubes with red wine vinegar until soft. Transfer to a blender or food processor, along with roasted peppers, garlic, tomato paste, paprika and cayenne. Blend until smooth, thick and creamy. Transfer to a bowl, stir in olive oil until it's the consistency of a milkshake. (Don't worry if it's a little thin.) Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning - it should be spicy, and you should have 1 1/2 cups. (The sauce will keep in the refrigerator for 1 week.)
• Once meats are tender, remove them from the pot and set aside. Strain broth through a fine mesh sieve and discard aromatics. Ladle off any surface fat. (If time permits, refrigerate meat and broth overnight.) Reheat meat in a small amount of broth. Bring remaining broth to a simmer and reduce for 10 to 15 minutes to concentrate flavors. Season to taste.
• Bring a separate pot of water to a light simmer over medium heat, and cook the precooked cotechino sausage for 30 minutes. Add the Italian sausages and simmer for 12 minutes, until firm and cooked through. Turn off heat and keep sausages warm in their cooking liquid.
• As sausages cook, prepare the vegetables: Bring a pot of well-salted water to a boil. Cook each type of vegetable separately until soft but not mushy, about 10 minutes each, a bit longer for the potatoes. Blot on a kitchen towel, then arrange on a platter and keep warm.
• To serve, cut chuck roast into 3/4-inch-thick slices, and chop shank meat into rough chunks. Cut cotechino crosswise into 1/2-inch slices. Leave Italian sausages whole. Arrange all meats on a platter, moisten with a little hot broth and garnish with parsley sprigs. This meal works well as a buffet, or you may prepare individual plates. Pass salsa verde and salsa rossa at the table. Serve broth in small cups alongside, if desired.

BOLLITO MISTO

Steps:

• Make the bollito misto: Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat. Season brisket generously with salt and pepper. Cook until golden brown, 4 to 5 minutes per side. Add stock; chopped carrots, celery, and onion; parsley; and bay leaf. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat to simmer. Cover, and simmer gently until brisket is very tender, about 2 hours.
• Transfer brisket to a plate. Strain stock though a fine sieve into pot, then add browned brisket, sausages, chicken, and potatoes. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer until meats and potatoes are just tender, about 30 minutes. Add whole carrots, onion halves, and remaining celery. Cover, and cook until vegetables are tender, 10 to 15 minutes.
• Using a slotted spoon, transfer meat and vegetables to a platter. Strain stock into pot, and cook until reduced by half, 15 to 20 minutes.
• Make the salsa verde: Puree all the ingredients through garlic in a blender. With machine running, add oil in a slow, steady stream. Season with salt and pepper.
• Slice meats, and arrange on the platter with vegetables. Drizzle some reduced stock on top. Serve with salsa verde, mustard, and remaining stock.

FRITTO MISTO

Steps:

• For the sauce: Combine the basil, pistachios, olive oil, lemon zest and garlic in a food processor. Pulse until roughly pureed. Remove the contents to a small bowl and stir in the mayonnaise and Parmigiano-Reggiano. Season with the salt.
• For the seafood: Fill a heavy-bottomed Dutch oven with 3 inches of oil and heat to 350 degrees F.
• Whisk together the rice flour, cornstarch, polenta, pepper and 1/2 teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Working in batches, dredge the shrimp and calamari in the flour mixture and add to the hot oil, being careful not to overcrowd the pan and drop the temperature. Fry until light golden brown and cooked through, 1 to 2 minutes. Use a spider to remove the seafood to a paper towel-lined tray and season with a pinch of salt. Continue with the remaining shrimp and calamari. Serve hot alongside the pesto dipping sauce and lots of lemon wedges.

BOLLITO MISTO (ITALIAN FEAST OF MIXED BOILED MEATS) RECIPE

Steps:

• Bring to a simmer and cook until meats are beginning to become tender, 1 to 2 hours. Add chicken legs and back and continue cooking until all cuts are tender enough to be easily pierced by a fork. Top up with water if needed at any point, to keep the meats submerged. The exact time it takes for all the cuts to become tender will depend heavily on the beef you have. They may not all cook at the same rate; if any become tender well before the others, transfer the finished piece to a pot or heatproof bowl with enough broth to keep it moistened, and set aside. Return to the pot with the broth when all the other cuts are tender.
• Transfer to a refrigerator overnight.
• Transfer all the meats to a work surface. Remove and discard bones from short ribs and carve into slices. Remove and reserve bones from beef shanks and carve shank meat. Peel outer layer of skin off tongue and discard, then trim any gristle and slice. Discard the chicken back and all the herbs, spices, and aromatic vegetables. Carve the chuck roast and chicken breast.
• Arrange all the carved meats on a large platter, along with the oxtails, chicken legs, and reserved shank bones (this is the osso buco, and it has delicious marrow in it).
• Moisten the meats with some of the warm broth (the rest of the broth can be seasoned with salt and served in soup bowls as part of the meal, or reserved to be enjoyed as broth at another time). Serve the bollito misto right away, sprinkling flaky or coarse sea salt on top and the salsa verde and salsa rossa alongside.

BOLLITO MISTO

Steps:

• Heat a large braising pot over medium-high heat. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Sear the beef, browning it on both sides, about 5 minutes a side. Carefully add the stock and enough water to just cover the meat. Add the onion, celery, and bay leaf. Bring the liquid to a boil. Lower the heat to a simmer, cover, and cook for 1 hour. Add the carrots and potatoes and cook until the meat is tender, about another hour. Carefully lift out the meat, place on a cutting board, and cover with foil. Strain the vegetables from the stock. Discard the celery, onion, and bay leaf. Arrange the carrots and potatoes on a platter and cover with foil to keep warm. Continue cooking the stock uncovered over medium heat until reduced by half, about 20 minutes. Meanwhile, slice the meat against the grain, on an angle. Arrange the meat alongside the carrots and potatoes on the platter. When the stock has reduced, season with salt and pepper, to taste, and transfer to a gravy dish. Serve the Bollito Misto with the gravy and bowls of the Gorgonzola Sauce and the Salsa Verde.
• Put all the ingredients in a food processor and combine until smooth. Serve in a side dish.
• In a bowl, stir all the ingredients together until combined. Serve in a side dish.

BOLLITO MISTO DI VERDURE (BOILED MIXED VEGETABLES)

Steps:

• Boil or steam all the vegetables keeping in mind they cook at different rates so you'll either have to do them in batches or different pots.
• Cook them to your taste. Some I like crisp-tender, others well done.
• Drain them and let them cool enough to handle them.
• Peel the beets and chop all the vegetables into bite-size pieces and combine them in a bowl.
• If you are using capers, stir them in now.
• Season with olive oil to taste, keeping in mind that the vegetables shouldn't be dry, but they shouldn't be swimming either. Season with salt and pepper and the herbs to taste and chill for at least an hour.

BOLLITO MISTO OF CAPON AND VEGETABLES

Steps:

• Place onions and leeks directly over a stovetop flame; cook, turning, until slightly charred, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large stockpot. Add capon, celery, carrots, tomatoes, basil, parsley, chicken bouillon, and salt; cover with 6 quarts water. Place over high heat; bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium low; simmer partly covered until capon is cooked through, about 1 1/2 hours.
• Carefully lift the capon from the broth, and transfer to a cutting board. Cover capon with a clean wet cloth, cover with aluminum foil, and set aside in a warm place. Pass the broth through a cheesecloth-lined sieve into a large container. Using a wooden spoon, press down to squeeze out as much liquid as possible from vegetables, and discard solids. Using a large spoon, remove as much fat that rises to the top as possible. Transfer stock to a large saucepan; return to high heat.
• One hour before serving, bring a large pot of water to a boil. Pierce the sausage all over with a fork. Wrap in cheesecloth, and tie ends with kitchen twine. Add the prepared sausage, reduce heat to medium, and cook for 1 hour. Remove from heat; keep warm. When ready to serve, slice the sausage and capon into serving pieces and arrange in a serving dish with Mixed Vegetables.

EGIDIANA'S BOLLITO MISTO

Steps:

• Place the chicken, beef shank, short ribs, red and white onions, celery, tomato, bay leaves, parsley, salt and peppercorns in a large pot. Add the chicken broth and the cold water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 45 minutes.
• While the broth is simmering, make the sausage. Place the chicken breasts and the nutmeg in a food processor and use the pulse button to coarsely chop the mixture. Do not overprocess: this will yield a weird, spongy, bolognalike creation. When coarsely chopped, add the Parmesan, mortadella, parsley, garlic, eggs, salt and pepper and pulse briefly to combine. Shape this mixture into a log about 3 to 4 inches in diameter, wrap securely in cheesecloth and, after the broth has cooked for 45 minutes, add the sausage to the broth.
• Peel and cut the carrots into 2-inch chunks. Peel and cut the potatoes into 2-inch chunks. Forty-five minutes after the sausage has been added to the pot, add the carrots, potatoes and leeks and cook for 30 minutes.
• While the vegetables are cooking, make the minestra di semolina. Place the lightly beaten eggs in a bowl, add the Cream of Wheat and stir to combine. Add the Parmesan, 1 tablespoon of milk, the butter, the salt and pepper and whisk. The mixture should resemble a thick pancake batter. Add more milk, if necessary, to achieve this texture. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. When hot, add the batter, smoothing to make one even layer. Cook for 1 minute, reduce the heat to low and continue cooking for 4 more minutes. Gently turn the pancake, cook for 3 minutes on the second side, turn out onto a plate and cool.
• Use a slotted spoon to gently remove the carrots, potatoes and leeks from the broth. Arrange on a warm platter, cover lightly with broth to avoid drying and keep warm. Remove the sausage, unwrap it, cut it into 1/2-inch slices and arrange them on a platter along with the beef shank, ribs and chicken, hacked into serving-size pieces.
• Strain the broth and return it to medium heat. Skim off any visible fat. Boil until the broth has reduced to 8 cups, about 7 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
• While the broth is simmering, use a sharp knife to cut the minestra di semolina into 1/4-inch chunks. Serve the broth liberally garnished with minestra di semolina as a first course, followed by the boiled meat and vegetables with the green and the red sauces below.